Boyer’s PMO consulting team has gained an expert in the field with the addition of enterprise project manager Christian Lund.
With an eclectic background in philosophy, theoretical physics, aeronautical engineering and nonprofits, Lund lends a unique perspective to Boyer’s project management team.
Lund graduated in 2010 with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, a major he chose largely due to his love for logic and systems. At the time, rumors of AI and its large language datasets led many to study philosophy with the intent of getting involved in the technology industry.
“I fell in love with datasets because of how complex it was,” Lund said.
Lund’s first role was in aeronautical engineering at what is now called BP Aero, a company that manufacturers, disassembles and repairs jet engine parts. He spent five years in various managerial roles.
As a PM, he was responsible for tracking and documenting where each of the millions of parts went — and ensuring all documentation complied with federal guidelines. He also served a key role in the company’s ERP and CRM implementations.
“For me technology became a passion by actually getting into the workplace. It was understanding where the office connected to the spot where we disassembled these machines,” he said.
“My value add here is to bring client perspective to my work, which is important to project management.” — Christian Lund, new enterprise project manager
The more he read, learned and understood about the technology industry, the more it fascinated him. The disparity between commercial companies and nonprofit organizations also intrigued him. He saw a gap in nonprofit technologies and knew the same tools and processes could help them succeed just as well as their for-profit counterparts.
“My focus was on bringing business acumen from the aerospace world into the day-to-day office of nonprofits,” he said.
Fast forward to 2021, when Lund joined Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC) as an IT manager. He quickly identified a need for a new CRM that would work with their existing Microsoft tech stack, as well as a new ERP solution. After doing some research on Microsoft partners, he chose Boyer based on their nonprofit expertise.
“(ERP) was incredibly successful from a business standpoint,” he said of the initial implementation. “Praise is due to the whole team that worked on it.” He left before the CRM project was complete.
It was this full scale Microsoft project that gave Lund his first glimpse of Dynamics ERP and CRM, as well as Microsoft’s nonprofit accelerator.
After experiencing three implementations as a client, Lund was fueled with a passion to help others in the same situation. Now, he’s offering advice from the project management perspective of a consultant.
“My value add here is to bring client perspective to my work, which is important to project management,” he said. “I’m going to push back from the perspective of someone who’s been in the client seat.”
Old technologies and cumbersome processes are two challenges nonprofits frequently have to manage, Lund said. He’s looking forward to helping Boyer’s clients overcome those challenges as a part of the PMO consulting team.
“I’m very excited to be a part of the team,” Lund said.
Lund and his wife Laura just bought a house in Silver Spring, Md. They also have a black cat named Penny.
Lund said his hobbies are “reading, reading and more reading … and gardening.” He reads a book pretty much every week. He recently took a deep dive into a comprehensive history of Napoleon’s battles, focused specifically on military strategies.
“It’s fascinating to see just how he’d solve practical problems,” Lund said.
He enjoys reading histories and philosophy books and is always looking for another good research article on project management or Microsoft’s latest documentation.
When he’s not reading or working, he likes planting and has several house plants and flower beds.
